Key insights
- your brand identity suite of statements include your purpose statement, mission statement, value statements and UVP
- this work comes together to communicate who you are, what you do, how you do it and why you do it
- brand identity work helps guide you internally and differentiate you externally
- from the foundation of your brand identity, your design, communications, content and marketing becomes more efficient — and more uniform and impactful
Before we get into it, note that many terms in brand identity and messaging are used interchangeably and so it is vital that you define what each statement specifically means to you.
At Fiction:
- a purpose statement encapsulates a business’ why
- a mission statement captures what a business downs and essentially how it will achieve its why
- a UVP is a clear, concise statement that focuses on the value the business offers to its target customers.
As we move down the list, the statements go from broad and lofty to clear and specific.
Creating brand identity starts with why
When creating a brand messaging framework, we start with the purpose statement.
As Simon Sinek says, it’s essential to “Start With Why”.
An enduring brand needs a bright North Star to keep it forging ahead through good and bad times.
A purpose statement is how this North Star takes shape.
Accordingly, written well, a purpose statement is big, bold and lofty so it can inspire.
It is so aspirational that it can raise eyebrows, and adequately abstract that it isn’t immediately obvious what the business does and how they do it.
A purpose statement should essentially be timeless and so it is broad enough to give the business space to evolve.
Here are 5 purpose statements from the world’s largest companies — can you guess who they belong to?
- Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
- To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.
- To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it.
- We’re in business to save our home planet.
- To empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.
You can find the answers at the end.
The what and how of your brand identity
A mission statement is one step away from the broad and lofty towards the clear and specific.
When reading the mission statement, it becomes apparent what the business actually does, who it serves and how it will achieve its purpose.
As a starting point, my formula for a mission statement is:
We [make/design/build/deliver/create/offer] [product/service] for [target market] to [unique benefit/point of difference].
The interplay between the why, what and how of your brand identity
While a purpose statement will remain relatively constant, a mission statement may be revised to reflect changing market conditions, customer preferences, product lines and more.
As an example, Nike’s “why” or purpose statement is, “bringing inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”
Though it has evolved to include “if you have a body, you are an athlete”, the essence is the same.
Meanwhile, their “what” started with footwear and has since expanded to include apparel and equipment.
Accordingly, their mission statement could be, “We make high-performance athletic footwear, apparel and equipment to enhance athletic performance and comfort to inspire individuals to push their limits.”
Some may prefer to keep their mission statements broad from the get-go to avoid having to update. In this instance, Nike’s mission statement could be, “We make products driven by high-performance and comfort to inspire individuals to push their limits.”
What a Unique Value Proposition is and how to write one
A UVP statement is the most concise and specific of the 3 and is written to focus on the benefits provided to the customer.
From reading a UVP, it should be immediately clear to the customer what your business can do for them. Equally, if you were to repeat your UVP to a stranger at a dinner party, they would be able to completely understand what you do.
My structure for writing a UVP is:
We [do] [unique offering] for [target market] to [benefit].
To clarify the concept of a UVP, let’s use the example of Tesla.
Tesla’s purpose is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
Their mission is to “design sustainable and massively scaleable systems across solar, batteries and EVs to amplify the greatest environmental benefit possible.”
Their UVP for EVs could be, “we make badass, zero-emission vehicles that are also the safest in the world, and the most fun you could possibly have in a vehicle, for customers to reduce their environmental impact.”
Fiction’s purpose, mission and UVP statements
Fiction’s purpose statement is “to spark connection through language”. You can see that while it clearly encompasses copywriting, it is broad enough to cover other offerings too.
Fiction’s mission statement is, “we deliver elegant, playful copywriting that seamlessly combines creativity and strategy to help Australian and New Zealand businesses deeply connect with customers.”
Fiction’s UVP is, “We write intelligent and creative copy for Australian and New Zealand businesses to build enduring relationships with their customers.”
You can see how we have moved from broad and lofty to clear and specific.
The benefits of getting your brand identity right from the start
It’s unfortunate (and even unwise) that most will overlook brand identity and messaging work, seeing it as a nice-to-have or even woo-woo and fluffy.
When you nail your brand identity and messaging from the beginning, you:
- avoid making poor business decisions like branching out into a product line that doesn’t serve your purpose — did you know that in the 1980s, Colgate tried to expand into frozen dinners? Yes, the toothpaste brand whose purpose is “sparking optimism…where championing optimism means we are committed to creating a healthier planet and work every day to create healthy smiles for all.”
- save time with content and marketing because the language is already there for you — basically, it’ll take you 30 seconds to write your LinkedIn profile rather than 30 minutes.
- save money because time = money
- feel more confident because you know you’ve articulated everything perfectly — no more cringe-worthy moments or missing out on lucrative opportunities because you’ve poorly communicated.
The last benefit is the most common reason why clients love the brand identity work Fiction completes for them.
When your brand identity and messaging can serve as a solid foundation for your communications, it’s easier to win a tender, write a compelling press release for a notable publication, successfully court a new superstar employee and more.
How brand identity and messaging refresh works at Fiction
Our process begins with collating your existing brand documents to understand where you’ve come from.
We’ll then hold a workshop to gather new information and understand your current-state, with some brainstorming and ideation activities.
Finally, we’ll deliver your refined brand identity and messaging framework, ready to be applied across all functions and formats and take you into the next phase of your business.
If you would like to refresh or establish your brand identity and messaging framework, reach out at hello@fiction-agency.com or complete this Typeform.
Last but not least, we hope this article has helped you understand what purpose, mission and UVP statements are, how to write them and — to end the way we start — why you need them.
Did you know that you could apply our view of purpose/mission to yourself as an individual? Read my personal view on this on my Substack on “You don’t commit to a venue or a medium or a technique. You commit to a path and an impact.”
And here are the answers for the purpose statements:
- Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy – Tesla
- To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world – Nike
- To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it – Apple
- We’re in business to save our home planet – Patagonia
- To empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more – Microsoft